Freddie Fox (Sebastian Dromgoole) is the real life first cousin of Laurence Fox (DS James Hathaway) as their fathers, Edward Fox and James Fox, are brothers.
Renton writes in the newspaper under the name Thersites. In Homer's Iliad, Thersites was a solder of the Greek army who is described as "saying what everybody else is thinking." This matches Renton's role as a spreader of gossip.
The title of the feminist book that Professor Miranda Thornton wrote in the 90s -"Fish Without a Bicycle"- references the famous feminist slogan "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" or its variant: "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." It was coined by Australian writer and social activist Irina Dunn in 1970, though often mistakenly attributed to Gloria Steinem.
"Is this the generation of love? hot blood? hot thoughts, and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers: is love a generation of vipers? Sweet lord, who's a-field to-day?" --Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene i
" 34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." --Matthew 12:34-37 (King James Version)
Colin Dexter: (the author who wrote the Inspector Morse books in which Lewis first appears) as an academic speaking to the Master on the college green.